Things to Do in Clarksdale, Mississippi

This is the state’s oldest music museum, started in 1979 by the Carnegie Public Library and a stand-alone museum since 1999. It sits in the 1926 Illinois Central freight depot on Blues Alley. The collection mixes blues memorabilia with art about the blues tradition. ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons helped bring it national attention in its early years.

★ Good to know It’s open Monday through Saturday with seasonal hours, so plan around Sundays.

Morgan Freeman is one of the co-owners of this juke joint and restaurant at 387 Delta Ave. downtown. It books live blues and serves Delta food, with a covered, screened patio outside.

★ Good to know Music nights change by the week, so check the club’s calendar before you plan your evening.

This intersection became known locally as the crossroads in the 1930s. Blues fans tie it to the legend of Robert Johnson selling his soul. A 1999 state resolution made it the official Crossroads, and Vic Barbieri’s sculpture of three guitars, weighing over 1,000 pounds, went up that May.

★ Good to know It’s at 599 N. State St., in traffic, so park nearby and walk over for photos.

Blues singer Bessie Smith died here in 1937, when the building was a hospital for Black patients. From 1944 Mrs. Z.L. Hill ran it as the Riverside Hotel, where Sam Cooke, Howlin’ Wolf, John Lee Hooker and Ike Turner stayed. Her granddaughters opened an interpretive center here in October 2025.

★ Good to know It no longer operates as a hotel, so check ahead on the center’s visiting times.

Clarksdale’s biggest week is this April festival, billed as half blues festival, half small-town fair. Saturday brings about 17 free daytime stages across eight downtown blocks, then about 25 juke joints and clubs at night. Expect racing pigs and monkeys riding dogs along with the music. The main day is a Saturday in mid-April, with related events all week.

★ Good to know Night venues need a festival wristband, and rooms sell out early, so book lodging as soon as you pick your dates.

This free festival has brought Delta blues and gospel to downtown Clarksdale every August since 1988. It’s staged near the Delta Blues Museum and focuses on Mississippi musicians. Jim O’Neal and Dr. Patricia Johnson started it as a grassroots effort. It runs over a weekend in early August.

★ Good to know It’s free and open to the public, with food and drinks for sale.

Since 2008, downtown plaques have honored Clarksdale people including John Lee Hooker, Ike Turner, Muddy Waters, Son House and Sam Cooke. Several Mississippi Blues Trail markers stand around town, including one for Sam Cooke in front of the New Roxy Theater.

★ Good to know Another marker stands on Stovall Road at a cabin where Muddy Waters is believed to have lived. He worked the Stovall plantation before leaving for Chicago in 1943.